Now in our eighteenth year, Rutland Water is home to the first Ospreys to breed in England for 150 years, after a translocation programme. We observe them from their arrival from Africa in Spring, through to their Autumn migration. Come and join us at Rutland Water Nature Reserve to learn more about these magnificent birds!

Location: Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Northamptonshire.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland

Adults: Male Osprey 5R(04) fledged from the site B nest in 2004. He was the first Rutland-born Osprey to return here in 2006. He bred for the first time at Manton Bay with an un-ringed, presumed Scottish female in 2010. Since then to 2012 they have raised a total of eight chicks.

This year, the unringed female of the past four years, now called Maya, arrived on 17th March. She waited three weeks for her long-standing partner, 5R(04), to return, but he did not. On 6th April, a four-year-old Rutland male, 28(10), took an interest in the nest, and Maya accepted him as her new partner. The first egg was laid on 9th April.

The naming of the Manton Bay female has proven very popular; we have had 689 votes all together, and all three names have been liked. However, there can only be one name for our resident female, and one name was quite clearly the most popular. So, the name with the most votes is: MAYA

As many of you will have already seen, we were in for a surprise this morning. Soon after first light, the Manton Bay female 'Maya as we are now calling her' stood up to reveal a newly-laid egg in the nest.

This came a quite a surprise; we weren't expecting an egg until next week. So what's going on? Having read up on the biology of egg-laying, fertilisation normally occurs 24 hours prior to the egg being laid. 28(10) and Maya have been copulating regularly since Sunday - more than enough time for the egg to have been fertilised. What is more surprising is that eggs have developed in the female's ovary. Normally it is the arrival of the male and the first copulations that trigger this. In this case, however, it would seem that simply being back at the nest where she has reaered young each summer since 2010 was enough for Maya to get into breeding mode; and thus trigger the development of eggs. Last year she laid the first egg 20 days after arriving and this year it has taken 23 days. Here's our first view of the egg this morning.

Our only worry now is that 28(10) has no experience of incubating. He's going to have to learn the ropes very quickly, but the fact that he is breeding with an experienced female will certainly help. We'll have another update later in the day.

In contrast to the past couple of days, today has been fairly calm. As you may have seen on the webcam, as of yesterday morning there are now three eggs in the nest! This is the average number of eggs an Osprey will lay, and the number that Maya has always produced. Sometimes Ospreys can lay four eggs, and it seems as though 28 would like a fourth, as he has been trying to mate again today!

The eggs have been well looked after by both the male and female Osprey. As you will see in the video below, 28 is becoming diligent in his incubation duties. He doesn&#8217;t always look comfortable, but this could have something to do with his damaged right wing, as he may not be able to bend it in the right way.

One intruder was seen today, 01 back again, but not for long. The sun has been shining, the birds have looked content. 28 brought in a fish at about 11:30, Maya took it away to eat and 28 took over the incubation. All how it is meant to be!

If you have been watching the webcam today you won't be surprised to hear that 33(11) has been causing more trouble at the Manton Bay nest. Like yesterday the three year-old male has made frequent intrusions, forcing Maya to leave the nest unattended for long periods as she gives chase. Under normal circumastances it would be the breeding male's role to do the majority of the chasing, but over the past two days it has become clear that 28(10) is no match for 33. Rather than driving 33 away from Manton Bay, 28 has been kept away from his own nest by the younger male. He hasn't been at the nest since 10am this morning, meaning that Maya has not only gone without fish, but also left the eggs unattened on numerous occionals in an effort to keep 33 away.

The fact that the eggs have been uncovered for such prolonged periods, clearly has serious implications. If things continue in this vein - and 33 certainly shows no signs of letting-up - then, sadly, it is highly unlikely that they will hatch. It would seem that 33 is winnning the battle to usurp 28 from the nest, but only time will tell...

Maya has been forced to leave the nest unattended in order to chase 33 away